


Lessons Learned the Hard Way

by His_Beautiful_Girl



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: #Lilly Lives, #love, #lv au week 2020, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23438476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/His_Beautiful_Girl/pseuds/His_Beautiful_Girl
Summary: Lilly attends the wedding of her best friend Veronica Mars. It brings back some thoughts from the past and some lessons that needed to be learned the hard way.
Relationships: Logan Echolls/Veronica Mars
Comments: 19
Kudos: 66
Collections: LV AU WEEK 2020





	Lessons Learned the Hard Way

_(The amazing cover art was created by Alina. Thank you so much!)_

**_Lessons Learned The Hard Way_ **

_By:His_Beautiful_Girl_

Lilly sits down again when the minister instructs, eyes trained on the bride and groom smiling at each other radiantly. The thought flashes through her mind that she should be up there with the happy couple about to get married, but _noooo_ a decision had ultimately been made to stand alone since they couldn’t fit in everyone and didn’t want anyone to feel left out. ‘ _How ridiculous!’_ The urge to roll perfectly made up blue eyes is almost overwhelming. However, it was their wedding and was done how they wanted it despite protests from her. _‘But honestly, we planned to be each other’s maid of honor since we were kids!’_ Conveniently forgetting that the bride hadn’t been her maid of honor when she married her first, second, or third and current husband. 

Sitting back with said husband's arm around her shoulder, listening to the love-filled, romantic, and, in her opinion, boring vows; Lilly is jolted to remember to be fortunate that she’s even here. If not for Veronica Mars, she wouldn’t be alive today, nothing but a memory. And, if Veronica and Logan weren’t so forgiving she certainly wouldn’t be at their wedding. While the minister drones on, her mind thinks back to the past.

  
  


**Lessons Learned The Hard Way**

  
  


_October 3, 2003_

Veronica had come stomping around to the pool, face red, hair flying, hands clenched, breaths coming fast. Lilly had never seen her best friend in such a state before; however, before she could comment on it, Veronica beat her to the punch. “Lilly Kane! How dare you? I don’t know who you think you are but how dare you! How could you do this? What is wrong with you?”

Shock and surprise ran through the blond’s body, she didn’t think Veronica had this in her. I mean, she knew her best friend was ‘red satin’ and not ‘yellow cotton’ but couldn’t imagine anything that could bring the tiny one to such a rage. Still, she was Lilly Kane and to be yelled at could not be allowed. A haughty arrogant tone clipped out “Veronica Mars. I suggest you sit down and have a drink, perhaps something stronger than lemonade and then you can explain to me why you think you can come to _my_ house, forget your manners and speak in such a tone.”

“No.” The petite blond’s head shook violently. “No, not this time, Lilly. Enough is enough. Logan is not a toy that you can play with when _you_ want to and then throw away when you don’t. He’s a human being and you’re hurting him. Can’t you see how much you keep causing him pain? This has to stop and it has to stop NOW. I will not allow you to do this anymore, do you understand me?! Decide if you want to be with him or let him go, Lilly Kane.”

Now _this_ piqued the older girl’s interest. Always having known that Veronica liked Logan and that Logan was half in love with Veronica, had recognized it from the day they met on that soccer field. But, she couldn’t have another girl, even if it was her best friend, getting attention from a guy who was giving her none. So, she had pushed Veronica toward Donut and herself at Logan using her physical charms to snare him. Occasionally, she felt a twinge of guilt at that but simply pushed it away because she was too fabulous to have to feel any such emotions. They were all just having fun anyway. 

“What have _I_ done, Veronica Mars? If you haven’t noticed, Logan and I are broken up currently.” the blond made sure to make her words stinging. The truth was, she _was_ scared. She had done several things, any one of them, should Veronica have found out, could have invoked this response. Thoughts drifted to the two tapes stashed in the bedroom vent right now.”

“I just overheard Eli Navarro talking about meeting up with you later and, from the sound of it, I don’t believe it’s to study for math class together.” Venom dripped from every word as the small blond spit them out, face twisted as if she had tasted something gone rotten. “How could you do this to him? I knew you flirted but you actually cheated on him? God, how could you?”

Lilly was about to respond that it wasn’t cheating if you were broken up when both girls heard a thundering male voice yelling as it made its way to the backyard area. “Where are they Lilly? You give them to me right this moment! You think you can screw with me, you little bitch?” There was no mistaking the timber of the great movie star Aaron Echoll’s voice and Veronica turned to her best friend with wide eyes. 

“Get in the house, Lilly. I don’t know what you’ve done but get in there and call the police!” Veronica hissed, pushing at the other blond to obey.

While Lilly followed orders, Veronica had stalled Mr. Echolls outside until the police showed up. Then had come the moment of truth, the tapes were handed over and Lilly had confessed to her affair with the movie star. While her best friend stared at her, astonished and disgusted the whole sordid tale had come out. When the police left, so had Veronica, telling Lilly she didn’t want to talk to her or see her for a good long while. She had made it clear that she knew that Aaron was the criminal here but knew that Lilly hadn’t gone into this innocently either.

The next year of her life had taught Lilly Kane some harsh lessons. For the first time, Jake and Celeste grounded her and didn’t give in, stuck in the house from directly after school until school the next morning, along with every weekend for three months. Twice a week a counselor came to the house for an hour and talking was encouraged, in fact, not cooperating with therapy resulted in further restrictions. A good thing that came out of it was that the counselor made the elder Kane’s face some realities about their parental styles and before you could say ‘rich privilege’ the entire family found themselves in counseling sessions learning how to actually be a family. 

Weevil broke up with the blond, hurt that she had been sleeping with three men at the same time when it had been implied he was the only one. Logan and her had, of course, been broken up and the letter with the gift of the shot glass found in her car before coming home that fateful day made it crystal clear that it was over for good, no going back. It still didn’t stop the hurt in his eyes when the secrets were revealed though. Both boys kept their distance in respective ways; Weevil threw himself into leading the PCHers, only to mingle with the 09ers if it was to hassle them. Logan, of course, was an 09ers and there was no avoiding him. Distance was kept and even routes altered so there were as little accidental run-ins as possible. He was never outright rude, never spread rumors about her, nor did he allow others to, but there was no talking and certainly no closeness between the former lovers. Despite Logan attempting to keep things civil, the truth was, Lilly Kane had fallen in the eyes of her classmates. She wasn’t shunned, no, that would never happen but queen no more. 

Aaron Echolls had taken a hard tumble when news leaked that there were sex tapes of him and women which had been made without the female’s consent. His reputation may have survived that, but the follow-up news that some of the females were underage had done him in. The women’s names had been kept out of the press, something very hard to do with the Echoll’s legal team trying to do the opposite. Lilly’s name was never mentioned publicly but Neptune wasn’t that big and gossip was huge. The good thing that had happened was that Lynn Echolls was able to file for divorce while Aaron was held in jail without bond. Without being free to hide his assets, Lynn was awarded half of the estate and custody of Logan. He would haunt their lives no more.

None of these consequences had been the hardest though, no that title belonged to the fact that her best friend emotionally and physically distanced herself from her. It wasn’t a complete distance but it was significant. Taking a page from Logan’s book, Veronica had written a long letter and mailed it. In it the petite young woman emphasized more than once that she loved Lilly and always would but that she needed time to wrap her head around all of this because she felt as if a mask had been ripped from her eyes and she was seeing things there had previously been a blind spot too. There was no timid asking that had been previously characteristic, this letter was written by someone who was confident and willing to demand what she wanted and needed when the request for both time and space was reiterated. However, nobody could say that Veronica didn’t have heart because the letter also emphasized that if Lilly truly needed her, she could still call. 

At first, Lilly did what she always did, tried to push boundaries. Phone calls made and pretending like everything was normal and nothing had happened, wanting to gossip about clothes or boys. Veronica put a firm stop to this when she told her that Veronica had meant if Lilly needed to talk things out about the decisions she had been making and how to fix them, not to gossip and talk about inconsequential things. It had been this distancing, this boundary set, this consequence for actions that had finally gotten through. And even then, it hadn’t been until Christmas of 2004 that the thaw had begun.

Veronica had shown up on the Kane doorstep in late February of 2004 to let Lilly know in person that she and Logan were now dating. There was no apology about it, in fact there was a fierce protectiveness in Veronica’s eyes and no shared details just a respect of a friendship that had been that she did owe it to Lilly to inform her in person and then when mission completed, left having done what she set out to do. 

The next several months she had been forced to watch the new couple and also swallow some more hard truths. They should never have been kept apart from the beginning; the great and fabulous Lilly Kane had been wrong, petty, manipulative, and even abusive at times to both Logan and Veronica. Veronica stabilized Logan and was eager to give him the love and affection he craved while Logan brought out the fierceness, determination, won’t-back-down in Veronica. The two of them together were inspiring to watch, from their broken homes they learned what didn’t work in relationships and did the opposite. Never flashy or attempting to be the center of things, they brought together a small core group made up of classmates from both sides of the lines but sharing in one thing, their trust and confidence. Most of all, the couple were each other’s strengths, didn’t use words to try to hurt the other, talked and confided in one another and rained affection on the other. It hit Lilly hard when she had come to the realization that she had almost ruined that, almost ruined not only her own but also their lives that fateful day. Had kept these two, so meant for each other, apart out of a need for attention.

Leaving for Vassar had been a good thing, it allowed space and time to heal and when Lilly had come back for Christmas break she reached out to the couple and asked to meet which they agreed to. Lilly had done most of the talking, honestly baring herself and admitting to her wrongs while asking forgiveness. With only a glance at each other, a silent communication both reached out for one of her hands as they told the blond she was forgiven. It was stressed things couldn’t go back to the way they used to be but there was a willingness to start again from the ashes to build a new friendship. They did warn though it would be different, no longer would she be running things or making all the demands. There would be boundaries that needed to be respected as they would respect hers. She agreed to all of this and they had begun communicating with each other again. Lilly was included in the circle of friends but she had to earn her way there and continue to prove she deserved to be there. Phone calls eventually became more weekly and there was gossiping again. They never quite regained that closeness that had once been there when the fab four had existed but, if truth was to be acknowledged, that was her own fault. Learning to become happy with what one had was a hard lesson to learn.

  
  


**Lessons Learned The Hard Way**

  
  


The bubbly blond startles out of her musings and the past with the announcement from the minister of “You may now kiss the bride.” Her lips curving up as she joins the rest of the guests in clapping while Logan dips Veronica back, kissing her much more deeply than Keith would prefer, by the looks of things. Her own husband lets out a wolf whistle at the couple along with a few other guests before the tall groom brings his bride up again, nuzzling her nose and kissing her softly once more, taking her hand as they prepare to be announced and walk back up the aisle.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Logan Echolls.”

Lilly watches her friend’s beaming face looking at her new husband amid all the cheering and feels contentment settle in her stomach. _‘Yes, things are the way they are supposed to be.’_ Her own husband grabs her hand and guides her when directed, leading her to where they are meeting for cocktails before the reception, leaning down to with a grin though his voice still booms, “So whatta say we get out on that dance floor tonight and show everyone how it’s done?”

With a smirk, she shakes her head. “No, I think for once we should leave all the attention where it belongs tonight, Dick. They deserve it.” Grabbing her phone from her clutch she sends out a message on her Twitter page…

**_‘Just saw the most fabulous couple finally exchange vows. Congratulations Logan and Veronica! #Epic_LoVe’_ **


End file.
